Reducing diesel costs and related emissions in mining and other heavy industries.
Here at Axora, we’re excited to provide some incredible innovation from all over the world that applies right across the mining value chain. Our solutions also deliver benefits into many other industries including cement, logistics, metals, aggregates and more. When we assess where the majority of our work is, however, it’s most definitely centred on decarbonisation but what we call ‘actionable decarbonisation’.
Actionable decarbonisation means that our solutions are available now, can be deployed in days and weeks and almost always pay for themselves within a budget year. There is a climate crisis underway and whilst critical minerals are definitely part of the solution, mining and other heavy industry companies need to decarbonise their operations also.
According to a McKinsey report in 2021,the mining industry is responsible for 2-3% of global CO2 emissions, and 40-50% of these emissions come from diesel equipment. [Another major contributor is energy consumed in processing – crushing and grinding specifically.]
The ICMM also validates this stat stating “At some operations, mining vehicles alone can account for >50% of total direct emissions” adding that “there are around 28,000 large mine hauling trucks in operation – collectively emitting over 68 million tonnes of CO2 every year”. Of course longer term emission-free vehicles will become the norm but this will take many years and smaller mining companies will have concerns that the initial production of hydrogen and electric mining vehicles will be directly supplied to the biggest global miners – it could take decades to shift every new mining truck to emission-free, and even then what happens to the legacy fleets ?
The cement industry is an even higher CO2 contributor, estimated by McKinsey to produce 7% of global CO2 and whilst grinding is a big component of this, the highest by far is kiln processes (see here), some of which depend on diesel power. Huge diesel-powered generators are at work every day delivering localised energy to these operations – and the more unstable the electricity grid (as is the case in many developing regions), the more likely we are to see diesel generated electricity across all heavy industry settings.
Axora is proudly working all over the world to reduce both diesel emissions and costs, as well as innovating grinding processes (see here for more info on this). We focus here on diesel emission reduction options from our marketplace. These are solutions that can be deployed today– they are proven, ready and fast to install or deploy, typically in initial trials, which Axora can help customers plan for and manage.
The beauty of these solutions is that, in general, they pay for themselves in that by reducing diesel consumption, organisations save costs, and of course reduce emissions. Many environmental initiatives do not give organisations that ‘it pays for itself’ factor but here, the business case is frankly very straightforward. In most cases these solutions pay for themselves within 3-6 months – it’s an incredibly strong business case and very robust and transparent.
We’ve expertly sourced a range of solutions that can reduce emissions as follows – some of them work across multiple industries and any form of diesel equipment, fixed or mobile, and others are more specific.
We are often asked by customers about the impact on equipment warranties. The good news is all of these solutions can be deployed without impact on warranties. There are different approaches in each case and in all cases Axora and our solution providers will help with any necessary OEM discussion, but for example, our fuel borne catalyst does not change the compliance of the fuel with international fuel standards, and thus under the principles of the Magnusson Moss act, OEMs cannot legally invalidate the warranty.
Across a vast range of deployments by our solution providers, there has never been a full blockage to progressing associated with warranty discussions – the business case is incredibly strong and Axora will support you through any relevant process to ensure you can take advantage of these innovations and protect your warranties.
The links above take you through to the main solutions that we have in this area and on each there is a downloadable brochure giving you further information. If you wish to explore one, several or even all of them, please just get in touch with usand we will guide you through the various options, pros and cons and trial strategies we recommend.
